Assaulting CRPF jawan, tying local youth to Army jeep: Tit-for-tat is ruinous for Kashmir
Jarring videos, images shot on cameraphones and depicting the conflict in Kashmir at its depraved, polarised worst have flooded the social media since yesterday.
One of the videos shows a CRPF jawan being slapped around, heckled and otherwise assaulted as he carries an EVM to a polling booth in Kashmir's Budgam. As "Go India, go back" slogans are heard, Kashmiri youths are seen taking their anger at the Indian Union out on the paramilitary personnel posted there for peacekeeping purposes.
Despite provocation, the CRPF jawan doesn't give in to baser instincts, and shows tremendous fortitude, patience during the ordeal. Naturally, both "patriotic" celebs and the mainstream TV media took upon themselves to point out the exemplary courage of the jawan, while underlining just how misguided it is to take out political frustration on a mere soldier of India.
This is Unacceptable ! Cant do this to our CRPF jawaans .This rot has to stop. Badtameezi ki hadd hai. pic.twitter.com/rZbqGbXk6O
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 13, 2017
And then, barely a day after, we are faced with this. A video of a local Kashmiri youth tied to an Army jeep, ostensibly to prevent stone-pelters from getting the better of security forces, hindering military operations in the terrorism-infested areas of the state. Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and the head of National Conference, Omar Abdullah, tweeted out shock and horror at seeing the footage of this obscenity.
This young man was TIED to the front of an army jeep to make sure no stones were thrown at the jeep? This is just so shocking!!!! #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/bqs4YJOpJc
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 14, 2017
Here's the video as well. A warning can be heard saying stone pelters will meet this fate. This requires an urgent inquiry & follow up NOW!! pic.twitter.com/qj1rnCVazn
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 14, 2017
Amid the din and outrage that will justifiably follow, it's important to not lose sight of the fact that both these videos point to the utter depravity of the dwindling situation in Kashmir Valley.
While assaulting the CRPF jawan was morally and ethically wrong, to the point of being downright disgusting, how is the grotesquerie of a Kashmiri youth tied to an Army jeep as a veritable human shield mark of a civilised country ensuring security in a conflict-torn state?
On Thursday, it was reported that the Centre has filed a curative petition before Supreme Court asking that the June 2016 decision of the top court be diluted to no longer include the mandatory provision of filing FIRs against every encounter/counter-terror operation death even in the AFSPA regions that would be brought about by the Army in the interest of national security.
But if the image of the youth tied to the Army jeep is a fleeting glimpse into the AFSPA's already expansive powers and misuse, then we wonder what happens when there are no FIRs, no accountability whatsoever, just "security" at gunpoint.
Of course, no one is denying that the Indian Army and paramilitary personnel have to make enormous sacrifices, often laying down their lives, to serve the nation. It's true that the assaulted CRPF jawan was a protector of democracy and its vital tool, the elections.
Miscreants identified, FIRs to be filed, #AFSPA & pellet guns needed in J&K: Ravideep Sahi, Insp Gen @crpfindia on #IndiaFirst @IndiaToday pic.twitter.com/NqOlYcKBfK
— GAURAV C SAWANT (@gauravcsawant) April 13, 2017
#HatersKickSoldierPellet gun is used as the last resort, not as the first option: Ravideep Shahi, CRPF, IG #IndiaFirst pic.twitter.com/uq2w1k7Gf2
— India Today (@IndiaToday) April 13, 2017
That he became the target of a politically disenchanted youth uprising in Kashmir is very unfortunate. Youths should have known that shooting the messenger doesn't help the cause and wouldn't help theirs as well.
But shouldn't we ask what is the democracy that the governments of India and the state of J&K want upheld when the rejection of that enforced democracy has been absolute? With voter turnouts as low as 7 per cent on April 9 and 2 per cent on April 12, what does one make of the tools of democracy that India wants to see to be working in Kashmir?
And instead of asking these difficult and unsettling questions, we focus on any one of the disconcerting videos that are coming out of Kashmir Valley, world's most militarised zone. Unless we realise that the two videos are part of the same culture of tit-for-tat violence, we'd be party to perpetuating the very same.
The "jeep row" has, however, found some kind of an "explanation" from defence and and national security correspondents, saying that it was an out-of-the-box thinking to tie up a stone-pelter to the jeep so as to prevent any real bloodshed.
Jeep row: Sources say five-vehicle convoy led by a major in Rakshak had few soldiers, 12 poll officials, 9 ITBP men, 2 cops. @htTweets (1)
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) April 14, 2017
Security, poll officials came under heavy stoning with locals, incl women, in Budgam area, attacking the convoy from rooftops. @htTweets (2)
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) April 14, 2017
Incident happnd in 53 RR's area of responsibility, stone attack sent things spinning out of control. Army probing viral video. @htTweets (3)
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) April 14, 2017
It was do or die, major who volunteered to serve in Kashmir took the call, deciding not to open fire and unleash bloodbath. @htTweets (4)
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) April 14, 2017
Yet, we need to ask, if in this age of social media, cameraphones and viral videos, is this only a matter of poor optics or indeed something much more cold-hearted than that?
The helplessness of the CRPF jawan who was assaulted for doing his job, and the trauma of the young man who was tied to the Army jeep to dissuade stone-pelters - they are the two sides of the same coin. No point separating their inextricably entangled contexts. No point trying to play the old game of oneupmanship over which one was the more cowardly of the two, and which the more unwarranted.
Let's be honest enough to admit that peace can never be achieved by the barrel of the gun, especially when the people for whose rights we are fighting don't fear the gun anymore. Let's also admit that political outreach, the only answer to the Kashmir conundrum, has sunk to its lowest in decades.
If our sympathies are with anyone of the equally victimised lot, we are doomed. Perhaps, the two videos have come out at the same time to drive home this simple point in a very complex crisis.